from the article:

The undated letter outlines several concerns, including “the increasing state of public corruption; the high level of violent crime; the [Government’s] failure to provide promised service delivery; unfulfilled promises to the diaspora regarding its involvement in the political process; and the legal defence that diaspora members do not have standing to sue the Government”.

It came above the signature of Dr Rupert Francis, who was identified as chairman of the Jamaica Diaspora Crime Intervention & Prevention task force.

According to the retired Jamaica Defence Force captain, the letter was written on behalf of concerned Jamaicans living in Jamaica and the diaspora and is a call to action.

“I wish to inform you, and by extension, the Jamaican Government, that the diaspora will engage Jamaica’s international partners to seek redress of our grievances. These international partners will include donor countries and organisations and Congressional/Parliamentary committees,” Francis wrote in the letter.

“We recognise that there are issues of corruption. Of course we recognise that there are issues of crime and violence. Of course, we recognise that there are issues with education. But this is where we have to build the country with our capacity as Jamaicans living overseas. To help with best practices and to invest in those start-up entrepreneurs,” said Peat.

#jamaica #caribbean #caricom #corruption

from the article:

At the time of his death, he was serving an eight-year prison sentence for a graft conviction.

His attorney, Petrus Bala Pattyona, said Lukas had been diagnosed with acute kidney failure since the start of his legal proceedings and he died at around 10:45 a.m. at 56 years old.

“He was first diagnosed with kidney failure amid the court hearings in October,” Petrus said.

Enembe was arrested by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Jan. 10, 2023, as he was trying to flee the country. Since his arrest, Lukas Enembe had been in poor health, leading to his hospitalization. Lukas claimed to have suffered a stroke and kidney failure. After his condition improved, Lukas was detained at the KPK Detention Center.

The Jakarta Anti-Corruption Court found former Papua Governor Lukas Enembe guilty of corruption and sentenced him to eight years in prison on Oct. 19, 2023. In addition to the prison term, he was ordered to return Rp 19.7 billion ($1.2 million) in embezzled state funds and fined Rp 500 million.

During his tenure, Lukas has been accused of accepting Rp 47 billion in bribes from private companies that secured contracts with the Papua government. He also faces a separate indictment related to money laundering allegations after the KPK seized a substantial sum of banknotes worth Rp 82 billion in various denominations from him.

The Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) revealed that Lukas made payments totaling 55 million Singapore dollars (US$39 million) to overseas casinos since 2017. This information came to light after analyzing the governor’s financial records at the KPK’s request. At one point, Lukas made a single casino payment of 5 million Singapore dollars, according to the PPATK.

KPK was also investigating allegations of the purchase of a private jet by Lukas Enembe. The KPK suspected that the purchase of the jet was related to the alleged receipt of gratuities and money laundering offenses.

#papua #papuaBarat #westPapua #indonesia #obituary #corruption #colonialism

@itsaj26744
misskey and its cutlery set of forks all have rss support > among them, rss support of firefish and iceshrimp could easily be labeled “rss eye candy of the fediverse”

rss feeds on the *keys follow the model:

https://instance.name/@user.rss

atom feeds are also available:
https://instance.name/@user.atom

from the article:

These policemen do all the planning and then engage the ‘wanted boys’ to carry out the main criminal holdups … even the firearms belong to them," the leaders claim in a petition sent to the government.
Mike Piau is one of the “wanted boys”.
He said he was bashed up and arrested by police in 2020 when he refused to take part in a robbery.

“They almost shot me with a pistol. When I didn’t do what they asked, they turned on me and arrested me and beat me up,” he told the ABC.

Mr Piau told the ABC he had been approached by police because he was an influential resistance fighter during the Bougainville crisis from 1988 until 1998.

At the time, local dissatisfaction with a major mining project sparked an armed uprising against the PNG government in which 20,000 people died.

Other “wanted boys” the ABC has spoken with say they are now hiding out in villages to escape arrest.

Mr Piau said the alleged police misconduct could hurt Bougainville’s independence bid.
“These sort of men will create bigger problems which will impact our road to independence,” he told the ABC.

Despite the 2019 referendum, which was non-binding, Bougainville’s fate lies in the hands of the PNG parliament, which is yet to make a decision on the issue.

The Bougainville Police Service still operates under the auspices of the Royal Papua New Guinea constabulary and is largely dependent on funding sort of coming through the PNG government system," he said.

Dr Dinnen said there was some community mistrust in the police following the Bougainville crisis.

When tensions began to break out in the late 80s, the PNG police deployed mobile squads to the region.
They were later accused of serious human rights abuses.

“There’s a kind of memory of that other kind of policing, that Bougainvilleans did not want to duplicate or replicate,” Dr Dinnen said.

Dr Peake said Australia had a role to play in training the PNG police, which it has done for decades.

#bougainville #png #PapuaNewGuinea #pasifika #violence #corruption

@mateomaui
chinese demand for wood has never cared for any regulations, especially not in the pacific region - it’s a catastrophe …

@mateomaui it’s grotesque, isn’t it?

from the article:

He said that they believed that more than 10,000 round or unmilled logs are currently stocked at a former slipway at Palekula.

The land owner said forestry department failed to measure the logs after they have cut down by the Chinese company for transportation to Palekula where they are stocked.

He said to know the price of a log the department has to measure it to evaluate the price but so far nothing has been done.

“Heaps of logs are currently stocked at Palekula and to remove them to take their measurement, it will take more than a month. This is the problem of the company and the department to short it out. For us the land owner we just want the payment of our trees,” said the land owner.

He said under the agreement signed between them, the Chinese company and the department, it was agreed to pay 2500 vatu per cubic metre.

#vanuatu #pasifika #exploitation #corruption #colonialism

@maegul
when i saw all that happening, i was sure that firefish won’t swim, but die soon > the rebranding happened behind closed doors, only to claim that ff was a community project > then, april got kicked out of the dev team, and there was no one else at firefish anymore to do serious backend work > firefish felt like a sect, consumed by its own hype

@RustyOperator

@Kierunkowy74
i use hajkey and iceshrimp, too > but i am not drawn to mastodon clients because they do not offer many *keys features > for the time being, i stick to the pwa

@RustyOperator @maegul @Amelia

@Kierunkowy74
i thought that the iceshrimp devs had rewritten their mastodon api compatibility layer, and that iceshrimp works fine with masto clients … it doesn’t?

@RustyOperator @maegul @Amelia

from the article:

Bougainville is seeking independence from Papua New Guinea, based on the overwhelming result of the referendum on independence held four years ago. Almost all - 97.7 percent - of Bougainville voters chose independence.

Last month, PNG’s Minister for Bougainville Affairs Manasseh Makiba told parliament the referendum results were non-binding, and it is only the national parliament that has the authority to determine the fate of the referendum results.
He told parliament it meant the referendum result would not take immediate legal effect until the national parliament approves or ratifies it.

This was a red rag to Massatt.
He said there is nothing in the Peace Agreement or the Constitution that said the referendum is non-binding.

That’s correct but it is also the case that the word binding is not used in either document.
As well, discussion on the matter during the writing of the Bougainville Peace Agreement (BPA) nearly 25 years ago led to a compromise that the referendum would go ahead on the condition it was non-binding, even if this is not spelled out.

@Amelia
all the *keys can communicate with lemmy as long as the lemmy post is not a link type post, and firefish users can take advantage of this rather rare event to chat with lemmy and kbin users, too

@RustyOperator @maegul

@maegul
it’s sad to see that, and all of it was foreseeable in april 2023 already …

@RustyOperator

@btaf45
west papua is the western half of the island, occupied by indonesia

@livus new government, old habits in nz …

@skullgiver
when it comes to creativity, mastodon ui is a pre-emptive strike against creativity > vanilla mastodon does not support emoji reactions, and damn!!! mastodon ui hides that there are other platforms on the fedi than mastodon > mastodon is perfectly fine for all those who want to see mastodon content, and nothing else > creativity? no! creativity starts with openness, and mastodon surely has a rather isolating approach

@feditips @fediverse @FediFollows @mention @masimatutu @HamSwagwich